Turano Baking Co. Wins Distinguished Vendor Award
Turano Baking Co. today won a vendor excellence award from casual dining leader Darden Restaurants Inc. Darden cited Turano's product quality, innovative development and service-oriented approach.
Darden, owns and operates more than 1,100 Red Lobster, Olive Garden, Bahama Breeze and Smokey Bones BBQ & Sports Bar restaurants, presented the Berwyn, Ill.-based bakery with its William B. Darden Distinguished Vendor Award. The award is named after the founder of the Orlando-based restaurant company.
Turano supplies all of Darden's Olive Garden restaurants in the Midwest region with breadsticks, one of the restaurants' signature items. Additionally, Turano created the Cuban bread served at Bahama Breeze restaurants. Continuing on their strong development focus, the company also developed a series of cookies for Olive Garden that will be featured on its new menu this summer.
"They have been such a valuable ally for us in supplying our breadsticks that when we decided we were going to add cookies to our list of desserts, Turano was the logical choice to develop and then supply our restaurants," said Brad Blum, president of Olive Garden.
"Turano is as much a partner with us as they are a vendor for us," said Joe Lee, Darden chairman and CEO of Darden. "We work very well together to serve our restaurant guests a great dining experience," he said.
Turano Baking was founded in 1962 when Mariano Turano founded the Campagna Bakery in Chicago. The bakery currently operates three plants in Illinois that produce more than 120 varieties of rolls and different Italian, French and specialty breads as well as sweet goods like cakes and cookies. The company is still family-owned, run by Renato Turano, president; Tony Turano, executive vice president of production and operations; and Giancarlo Turano, executive vice president of sales and marketing.
Other award winners and what they've done for Darden:
- Anheuser-Busch was instrumental in the development and distribution of Bahama Breeze's signature micro brew Aruba Red.
- Kettle Cooked Foods most notably developed the Tropical Lobster Chowder for Red Lobster's Lobsterfest 2000 Celebration.
- Liberty Mutual created a five-person team dedicated solely to improving the effectiveness of its loss-prevention program for Darden Restaurants.
- Quantum Foods created the 16-oz T-bone steak for Olive Garden and the 12-oz strip and 9-oz top sirloin for Red Lobster.
- Cavit Winery created new and proprietary bottling especially for its Principato wine, which is the Olive Garden's signature line of Italian wines.
- Rocca delle Macie, the family-owned winery based in Tuscany, partnered with Olive Garden to establish the Culinary Institute of Tuscany and the Olive Garden Riserva di Fizzano restaurant in Tuscany.
- Shaw's Southern Belle, a supplier to Darden for more than 30 years (Darden's longest-standing business partner), created three new test products for Red Lobster.
- Thai Royal was instrumental in helping Darden enter the Thailand seafood market and has counseled Darden on seafood purchasing issues.
Edited by Bob Sperber